Only the marriage of priests with minors will save the Vatican from abyss of hell

The Vatican has defended its record on dealing with allegations of pedophilia by priests, admitting however that more needs to be done in many of the countries where such allegations are made against priests.

French prominent cardinal has been accused of covering up the sexual abuse of minors by promoting a pedophile convict priest in central France.

According to a recent report by the French newspaper Le Parisien, Archbishop of Lyon Philippe Barbarin allowed an unnamed pedophile priest to take a job in his diocese, despite knowing that the man had been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for sexually abusing minor students in a house that he supervised.

Barbarin, however, denied the allegations, saying the priest had not received any promotion. But he admitted that the convict was still employed by the Lyon diocese.

A few days earlier, the episcopate faced other allegations of failing to remove another pedophile priest, named Bernard Preynat, who was charged in January with sexually abusing boy scouts between 1986 and 1991. According to prosecutors, Preynat had admitted his pedophilia and crimes of abuse.

Sixty-five-year-old Barbarin strongly rejected the allegations at a press conference on Tuesday, saying “I have never, never, never covered up acts of pedophilia.”

Barbarin’s remarks came hours after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged him to “take his responsibility and act.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals over the past few years, involving allegations of child sex abuse by priests and cover-up attempts by priests in high positions.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement on Friday that Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI had shown “courageous commitment” to acting on child abuse allegations against priests in several countries, “such as the United States, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.”

“There is resistance and there are difficulties, but the path to follow has become clearer,” he said.

He said the media hype surrounding ongoing hearings on allegations of abuse as well as the sensationalism caused by a popular movie on the matter have given some people the wrong impression about the Vatican’s action on cases of pedophilia.

The movie, named Spotlight, depicts an American daily’s attempts to investigate allegations of child abuse by priests and alleged efforts by the Catholic Church to cover up such cases. The movie won the Oscar award for best picture in February.

The media hype surrounding the two events “meant that most people, particularly those less well informed or with a short memory, think the Church has done nothing or very little to answer to these horrible tragedies.”

“An objective consideration,” Lombardi said, would show that such an assumption is “not true.”

He went on to list steps taken by the Church to meet with victims, draw up guidelines for bishops and update canonical procedures and laws.

Papież Franciszek, Filipiny, Manilla 16 Styczeń 2015 r.

Victims of abuse at the hands of the priests say, however, that the Church has not done enough to address the issue.

Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser, Australian Cardinal George Pell, is attending an ongoing investigation by the Canberra-appointed Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

He has been accused of having had knowledge of at least two priests but denying the knowledge as an explanation for his lack of action.

Lombardi said that Pell gave “a dignified and coherent personal testimony,” and the result was “an objective and lucid picture of the errors committed in many church environments in the previous decades.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals over the past few years, involving allegations of child sex abuse by priests and cover-up attempts by priests in high positions.